Selected publications

• Practice-Focused Research Based on Public Health Critical Race Praxis

  Annual Review of Public Health · 2026-01-02

  article

  A growing number of researchers use public health critical race praxis (PHCRP), an antiracism framework derived in part from critical race theory, to conceptualize racism as a public health problem and examine its contributions to health and health care inequities. Critical race scholars define racism as “the state-sanctioned and/or extralegal production and exploitation of group-differentiated vulnerability to premature death,” as stated by Ruth Gilmore in her 2007 book Golden Gulag . Despite solid evidence for the prevalence and potential effects of racism, few studies provide data to guide the development, implementation, and evaluation of antiracism interventions in diverse settings (e.g., community, health care), activities that we refer to in this review as practice. A central focus of PHCRP is to guide evidence-based action to disrupt racism; therefore, the framework may be useful in guiding antiracism practice. However, evidence for its use for practice has not been established. To encourage the development, implementation, and evaluation of antiracism solutions, this review examines the evidence applying PHCRP to practice-focused research. The findings provide a baseline assessment to guide future evidence-based antiracism mitigation efforts. We offer recommendations to support future practice-focused work.

  PublisherDOI

• Can Adverse Childhood Experiences Screening Promote Health Care Utilization?

  Journal of General Internal Medicine · 2025-07-11

  letterOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Evaluating the Implementation and Outcomes of a Community‐Based Doula Program in Washington State: A Mixed‐Methods Analysis

  Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health · 2025-06-01

  articleSenior author

  BACKGROUND: Community-based doulas, who provide nonclinical perinatal support and are often from the same communities as the families they serve, are increasingly recognized as a strategy to ameliorate racialized perinatal health inequities. However, little is known about the successful implementation and sustainability of community-based doula programs. METHODS: Using an explanatory sequential mixed methods design, we examined the implementation and health outcomes of a community-based doula program serving low-income families and the barriers and facilitators that influence these outcomes. We analyzed programmatic and health outcome data among all families enrolled in the program from January 2016 through December 2022. Four in-depth listening sessions with the program's direct service providers were conducted and analyzed using thematic analysis. RESULTS: Among the over 1800 families served, the majority of whom identified as either Asian, Black, Indigenous, Latina/e/x, or multiracial, there were 14,672 total home visits that totaled 17,774 h. Over $87,000 in direct funds and 7000 tangible items (e.g., diapers) were dispersed to families. Preterm birth ranged from 4% to 9% across programs and most participants (> 94%) were breastfeeding/chestfeeding at birth. Direct service providers identified holistic, culturally-matched services and "doula-ing the doula" (organizational infrastructure to support doulas) as facilitators. Barriers included the intersecting systems of oppression that underlie the primary challenges faced by birthing families and direct service providers, including lack of community resources and power asymmetries within birth settings, that can lead to provider burnout. CONCLUSIONS: These findings document the positive impact of community-based doula programs and bolster calls for increased compensation and structural supports for doulas.

  PublisherDOI

• CBPR is indeed political

  The Lancet Regional Health - Americas · 2025-10-30

  letterOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Public health critical race praxis and methodological counterstorytelling

  Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks · 2025-07-18

  book-chapterSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Does Early Life Adversity Limit Delivery of High‐Quality Health Care Among Children?

  Child Care Health and Development · 2025-04-12 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  BACKGROUND: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have been associated with poor health and underuse of preventive health services. However, less is known about how ACEs are associated with quality of care that children receive, like care that involves shared decision-making. METHODS: Using data from the 2021-2022 National Survey of Children's Health (n = 47 179) the association between ACEs, both individual and cumulative and (1) needing medical decisions made in the past 12 months and (2) three different measures of always receiving care that involved shared decision-making. Logistic regression models were used to calculate odds of each outcome. Each of the 11 ACEs and the cumulative number of ACEs served as independent variables each in separate models. RESULTS: After accounting for confounders, the number of ACEs experienced, and most individual ACE items were associated with higher odds of needing medical decisions made, and lower odds of receiving health care that involved providers always engaging in the three measures of shared decision-making. CONCLUSIONS: This study expands the research showing a deleterious impact of ACEs on utilization of health care by showing that ACEs are associated with lower quality health care. This can be particularly determinantal to children with a history of ACEs because they have a greater need for health care and are less likely to use many types of health care. Efforts to improve health care quality for all children will be of particular benefit to vulnerable groups, like those with a history of ACEs.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Defining what’s at stake: a person-centered approach to conceptualizing the health and social impacts of police violence in the United States

  Frontiers in Public Health · 2025-10-14 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  The increasing efforts among public health researchers to examine the connections between police violence and health outcomes has resulted in growing discoveries about the implications for both direct and vicarious exposure as well as disparities by race and ethnicity. To date, the conceptualization of police violence and health has largely focused on single causes and/or mechanisms at one point in time and focused on individuals most proximal to impact. However, the prevailing conceptualizations are limited in scope. They are relatively linear, do not account for multiple dimensions of harm, and are void of temporal factors that span across communities and generations-all factors that are sustained by forms of structural racism. We offer a reconceptualization guided by the Public Health Critical Race Praxis (PHCRP), a public health offshoot of Critical Race Theory, that offers public health professionals a framework and semi-structured process for centering racism in their analyses and implications of police violence on health. Our conceptualization is supported by multiple case studies, and we conclude with concrete recommendations for public health professionals to draw on as strategies to address police violence and advance health equity.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Structural gendered racism as conceptualized by immigrant women in the United States

  Social Science & Medicine · 2024-05-31 · 20 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• 9. Resisting the Disentanglement of Race and Religion in Public Health: How the Racialization of Religion Impacts Health

  American Public Health Association eBooks · 2024-01-01

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Disparities in Screening for Adverse Childhood Experiences

  The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine · 2024-01-01 · 4 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  INTRODUCTION: Screening for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in the clinical setting is set to become more commonplace with continued efforts to reimburse clinicians for screening. However, an examination of disparities in ACEs screening and related attitudes and beliefs is needed. METHODS: Using the 2021 California Health Interview Survey (CHIS), this study examined if several measures of socioeconomic status, access to care and identities were associated with 3 outcomes: 1) getting screened for ACEs by a clinician; 2) beliefs about the importance of screening and 3) satisfaction with efforts to address the impacts of ACEs. Logistic regressions were used to estimate odds of the outcomes. RESULTS: Black, Latinx, and Asian individuals had lower odds of being screened for ACEs than non-Hispanic Whites. A recent doctor's visit, higher burden of ACEs, and serious psychological distress were associated with higher odds of being screened. Latinx individuals, women, bisexual individuals, those with a recent doctor's visit and those with serious psychological distress had higher odds of believing clinicians asking about ACEs was very important, relative to their counterparts. Latinx individuals, American Indian or Alaska native individuals, Asian individuals, those with higher educational attainment and those with serious psychological distress had lower odds of being very satisfied with providers' efforts to address the impact of ACEs, relative to their counterparts. CONCLUSIONS: Efforts to expand ACEs screening should consider the disparities in screening that currently exist. Given the wide-ranging impacts that ACEs have on health, an equitable approach to screening is necessary.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI